Eskimos rookie writes about well-travelled path

Curran ran out of NFL options after two years in that league

EDMONTON — “My whole entire career, pretty much, I’ve been labelled as undersized, too short,” said Rennie Curran. “And every time a coach has given me a chance, I’ve never disappointed them.”

Curran hasn’t played a game with the Edmonton Eskimos yet, and admits he’s still learning about the Canadian Football League, but he has literally already written the story of so many of the league’s players.

In between his release from the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2012 and signing with the Eskimos on Feb. 25, the 24-year-old could only train so much. With NFL options dissipating after two seasons in the league, he found himself at a crossroad.

So he wrote a book.

Free Agent: The perspectives of a young African-American athlete is Curran’s story of how he’s handling a turning point in his life and how he thinks other people could gain from his experience.

“I realized that I could write a book later in life when I become possibly a Hall of Famer or a successful athlete, or I can write it now when more people can relate to what I’m going through,” he said, “that transition phase or that crossover point that a lot of people reach.

“You look at the Oprahs and the Bill Gates of the world, the people who are at the top of their industries, and you realize that they all had to go through a similar situation that I went through, being in that no man’s land after failure and having to push yourself and build yourself back up.

“That’s what ultimately helped to get them to where they are today, so that’s the kind of perspective that I wrote from.”

Curran’s book, which runs 140 pages, went on sale on April 6 on his website, renniecurran.com.

The child of Liberian refugees who escaped civil war in the 1980s and settled in Snellville, Ga., Curran grew up to be a three-time all-American at the University of Georgia. He left school early and was taken in the third round of the NFL draft in 2010, 97th overall, by the Tennessee Titans. A coaching change left him out in the cold with the Titans and he signed with the Buccaneers for the 2011 season and went through another coaching change. Curran was released after the Bucs selected linebacker Lavonte David with a second-round pick in the 2012 draft.

Curran saw a parallel between his free agency and what many people go through in their lives.

“The first main point in the book is talking about how at some point in life, we all reach the crossroad point, that transition phase,” he said. “Whether that’s in college and you’re going into the real world, whether you’re a working citizen who gets fired from their job after a bunch of years, you become likened to a free agent who has to ultimately make a major decision.

“I use the concept of being a free agent and attach it to a universal thing that anyone can relate to.”

In addition to a high-end talent, the Eskimos will get a renaissance man in the locker-room who seems to have a knack for connecting with people. With almost 120,000 followers on Twitter, Curran has a testimonial on the back of his book from actor Marlon Wayans.

“It was a funny story,” he said, laughing over how he met Wayans. “I was actually at a charity event and I had met Jaleel White, who everybody knows as Steve Urkel.

“We became really good friends and we’re hanging out that night at the charity event and, all of a sudden, Marlon Wayans shows up out of nowhere. So I ended up hanging out with Jaleel White and Marlon Wayans on the same night. It was really crazy.

“We stayed in contact and Marlon’s movie, Haunted House, was coming out and he tweeted me and asked me if I’d help him promote it, so when the book came out I thought, ‘Hey, I might as well hit him up and see if he’ll return the favour.'”

In his two friends, Curran saw two more people who had gone through their own free agency/crossroad periods.

“Both of those guys … especially Jaleel White, having that character for so long, being Steve Urkel. For him to transition from that to what he’s doing now (a UCLA film school graduate who still acts and writes), it’s pretty much the same thing I was going through. It’s trying to see your dreams, but when you get to that crossroad point, you have to encourage yourself.”

At five-foot-11, 230 pounds and with a chip on his shoulder about how his years in the NFL turned out, Curran’s path to the CFL isn’t a freshly blazed one. When the Eskimos’ rookie camp opens on May 29, he’ll take the first steps in the next chapter of his story.